5 Web Design Trends To Watch Out For In 2015
Not everyone likes to follow the trend, but in marketing and web design, keeping up with trends is one of the most important things you can do - even more so if you run a web design agency that specialises in this stuff!
But it’s not just web designers who need to worry. Failing to keep up with trends can be a disaster for any kind of online business. Yet it’s easy to slip into a comfort zone. Changing things around takes valuable time away from the day to day business and it can sometimes seem like wasted time. Redesigning a website costs money. Consulting with staff members on how the website should look costs time and effort.
You already paid for an expensive website in the first place so why even consider redesigning it just to follow new trends? The answer is that keeping abreast of web design fashions is important. Why? Because it’s important to the one person you need to impress – your customer.
Change in web design happens far more rapidly nowadays than it used to. These changes can come in all sorts of areas, from design colours to graphic design elements, typography and functionality.
So making a website work doesn’t stop with building it. It needs to be adaptable to changes. It is worth paying attention to how it might evolve in the future and that ‘future’ is often just around the corner.
With this in mind, let’s look at the following five areas you would be wise to keep an eye on in 2015.
1. Responsive Design
There are still many businesses out there ignoring responsive design. Responsive design doesn’t just mean that the website resizes to smaller screens (even if this is a start), it’s important that the content is readable and easy to navigate on those different screen sizes.
Personally, I get more impatient when I’m viewing things on a mobile. Viewing on a small screen is the place where I’m looking for quick answers why make it harder for customers to find them? Statistics say I’m probably not alone. Responsive design is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity.
2. Typography
The right typography won’t create a masterpiece on its own, but it will present what you are trying to say better. The visual presentation of words on a website can mean the difference between getting a blog read and people passing it by. Unfortunately people have short attention spans online and it’s usually the pretty presentations that draw people in and get noticed.
Fortunately there are a vast array of fonts to choose from with new ones being added all the time. Few people outside of design consider the sheer volume of choice. Ignoring fonts and typography can leave a website looking hopelessly out of date, dull and boring, particularly on mobile screens where the trend is towards bold typography that is easy to read.
3. Video Backgrounds
A trend that is becoming increasingly popular is the video background and there are signs of it really catching on in 2015. It can make a website look and feel more dynamic and more interesting to look at than the standard website layout.
It is fashionable now but this doesn’t mean that every website should have one. If you’re an advertising agency or involved in the movies then it might be worth considering. Video backgrounds will attract more attention and if you happen to be in an industry where attention grabbing is important then it may be time to consider how a video can be integrated creatively as in this example… http://mediaboom.com/home
4. Storytelling
Storytelling has become a buzzword in internet marketing circles, but it’s nothing new. As human beings we’ve been telling stories since we learned to communicate. Businesses are increasingly catching on to the need to tell a story through a combination of video, images and text.
Having that story presented on your website in a way that will engage the audience will soon be critical now that people are faced with more choice online. If you’re not familiar with buyer personas or simply ignore them, the end result can be a muddled layout that doesn’t help anyone understand why they should choose your business over others.
5. Scrolling instead of clicking
If you have come across websites that endlessly scroll, it can be a matter of taste as to how much this improves the visitor experience. Again it really depends on the type of industry. Scrolling may be good for architects and businesses dealing with visual content, but it can become irritating if there is a lot of textual content on each of the pages.
There is also the possibility that search engine optimisation will be more difficult with much of the content effectively on one long page. This is one example where search engines may not be sophisticated enough to keep up with this trend when they rely on keywords featuring prominently in the coding of multiple pages.
Remember, when it comes to design trends, always try to find out how your audience (and search engines!) will react to changes. Not all of the above will be suitable for your business but it is worth keeping an eye on them to see how they and other innovations develop in the future.
What changes have you made to your website in 2015? It would be great to hear them and see some of your examples.
